Pros & Cons: '07 Audi A8L, 4.2L, 100k miles

A friend emailed me and I think he's serious about a local 2007 Audi A8L Quattro, 4.2L V8, and just over a 100,000 miles.

I owned a 2000 A6 Biturbo and sold it in about a year due to repair cost. Is the A8L going to be the same thing? Or is the flagship a cut above the rest?

How about the 4.2L and timing chains? Any other dollar intensive maintenance items for him to worry about?

Advise him to run away or to go check it out? He does seem to be the guy that always has a car in the shop and spending money on big ticket items, so maybe this will fit right in with the rest of his car history!

IME they only get more expensive to repair the higher up the range you go with ze Germans. The drivetrain in this sounds vaguely standard for several ranges of Audi, but the gizmos are usually what end up breaking the bank and sometimes the gizmos relate to how well it runs vs just some nice to haves.

Our 2001 A6 biturbo was very reliable, but we owned it from new to 100k miles. I agree with the above statement about the more expensive the car, the more it costs to keep on the road. Example: BMW 7-series, especially relative to 3-series. With an A8 of that age, I would expect to pay the purchase price again for repairs within 2 years or so.

Pre 04 4.2 motors are not bad to service. The post 04 motors were re designed and things like timing chains were moved to the back of the engines making them an engine out service. My research on the 4.2's (from looking at A6's) is pre 05 is much better. Even with the 04 and older you are still going to be dealing with Porsche/Audi parts pricing and labor rates. I have had P cars in the past so working on these does not bother me but they are not for the faint of heart. They require more care and feeding and everything about them will cost more but the upside is these are fantastic cars if cared for. They don't take well to deferred maintenance at all. I have also been told by a friend of mine that sees these cars every day at a local shop that specializes in foreign cars (that are out of warranty) He said to get the lower millage one you can find no matter what the age and all of he A6 and A8's seem to have front end's that ware out much faster than comparable BMW and Merc's. He said that it can be well over $500 in parts per side to fix / refurbish the front ends. The last one he did the bill was over $1800.